


work boyfriends

by sourcheeks



Series: jungle juice [1]
Category: All Elite Wrestling, Being The Elite (Web Series), Professional Wrestling
Genre: Muteness, Sign Language
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-18
Updated: 2019-10-18
Packaged: 2020-12-14 06:36:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 977
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21011375
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sourcheeks/pseuds/sourcheeks
Summary: Jungle Boy has been trying to catch Orange Cassidy's attention for some time now.





	work boyfriends

Luchasaurus felt a tap on his shoulder, looking up. Jungle Boy was hovering behind him, looking nervous. He smiled, ruffling the younger man’s hair. “What did you break?”

Jungle Boy pulled a face at him. “Didn’t break anything,” he signed. 

“What happened, then?”

Jungle Boy’s hand flashed in front of his mouth, c, s, c, s. He glanced around quickly, nervous. 

Luchasaurus frowned. “You… want an orange?” This was out of character for Jungle Boy - he really wasn’t the shy type. Certainly not about food. 

Jungle Boy rolled his eyes so hard Luchasaurus thought they would roll right out of his head. He shook his head quickly, repeating the sign. “Orange. Wanna talk to him.”

“So… just do.” Luchasaurus didn’t know if Orange knew ASL, but he wasn’t totally sure he knew English, either. He could barely tell when the guy was awake. “He’s not exactly elusive.”

Another furtive glance around the room. Was he _ blushing _? What was going on? “You aren’t listening to me.” Jungle Boy pouted at him, and Luchasaurus rolled his eyes. 

“What’s the big deal? You’ve never had trouble making friends before.” At most Jungle Boy needed an interpreter, but it was never hard to snag someone who knew at least a few signs for Jungle Boy to talk to while Luchasaurus was busy in any given promotion. 

“Not friends.” Jungle Boy waved his hands in the way he did when he was trying to think of something to say. “I like him.”

Now, in his defense, Luchasaurus hadn’t meant to laugh. He still felt bad when he did, because Jungle Boy looked absolutely crestfallen. “Sorry, sorry.” Luchasaurus cleared his throat. “Um, can I ask… why?” No offense, but… Orange? Like, Orange _ Cassidy _?”

Jungle Boy glared at him. “Yes. He’s cute.”

“Sure, sure.” Luchasaurus held his hands up in surrender. “What do you want me to do about it?”

“Talk to him?” 

Luchasaurus sighed, rubbing his temples. “You know I’m not, like, actually your dad, right? Like, that’s just for the cameras. You’re like, an adult man.”

For all his talk, Luchasaurus was weak. He couldn’t say no to those puppy dog eyes. 

* * *

“Cassidy?”

Orange didn’t look up at him, but sort of grunted vaguely to alert Luchasaurus to the fact he was aware of his presence. Luchasaurus didn’t know how he just sat there and stared at nothing. He didn’t have a book, or a phone, or a game, and he was sitting perfectly still. Luchasaurus would go insane. 

“I wanted to talk to you.”

More silence. He took that as permission to go on. 

“You know my partner, Jungle Boy?”

A long silence. Cassidy took in a deep breath. “Yeah,” he said at last. 

“Right, he wanted me to ask you…” Adam paused, wondering just how much he should disclose. “If you knew any sign language.”

Orange slowly pulled his left hand out of his pocket, using it to grab the wrist of the right, pulling that one out as well. He lifted his hands up in front of his face in what almost resembled a loose boxing pose. This took several minutes. “I know a little bit, yeah.” This took him another several minutes to sign, because he signed even slower than he spoke, and apparently Orange Cassidy was a perfect English signer. Of course he was. 

“That’s great, that’s super great. Uh - just, you know, Jungle Boy needs someone to talk to when I’m not around.”

If it took Cassidy a while to sign, it took him even longer to fingerspell. “M-A-R-K-O?”

Luchasaurus responded with Marko’s name sign, a loosely cupped fist tapped twice against his palm. It was a little mean spirited, but Luchasaurus figured that’s what he got for trusting Jungle Boy to pick his name sign. “Marko isn’t too fluent yet. So, I just figured I’d ask around on Jungle Boy’s behalf.”

“He’s cool to hang with me, man,” Orange signed. 

“Oh, uh - he’s just mute, he isn’t deaf, by the way. So… you can talk to him,” Luchasaurus added, wanting to save Jungle Boy a little bit of time. Orange nodded, and fell still again. He still wasn’t moving when Luchasaurus happened by the same spot almost half an hour later. What a weird guy. 

* * *

Jungle Boy refused to be nervous about this. He found Orange lying down on some equipment crates, clambering up the side to talk to him. He snapped his fingers for attention, and waved when Orange gave the most minute turn of his head. 

“Hey, man.” Orange propped himself up on his elbows. 

“Hey. Luchasaurus-” L-U-C-H-A-S-A-U-R-U-S, then a D finger-sign walked down his arm “-told me we should talk. That you could talk to me.” Jungle Boy was, in spite of himself, nervous, signs fast and sloppy. It seemed to take Orange a minute to understand, but it took him a minute to do most things. 

“Yeah.” 

Jungle Boy tried to adopt a casual pose to match Orange - he couldn’t lean back on his hands, obviously, but he put his shoulders to the wall and stretched his legs out in front of him, crossed at the ankle. That looked cool, probably. “I’ve been watching your matches.” He hoped that came off as complementary, not creepy. Then again, he had never met a wrestler who didn’t enjoy a good ego stroke. “You’re really good. I like your kip up.”

“You’re good too.” Orange nodded.

Jungle Boy tried not to look too excited. “Are you free after the taping?”

Orange nodded. 

“Go out with me.” He was way too nervous to come up with more delicate phrasing, pointing to himself then tapping two D finger signs together. 

A slow smile spread across Orange’s face. It was the first time Jungle Boy had ever seen him smile. “Yeah. Okay.”

“Okay.” Jungle Boy grinned. “Drinks?”

Orange nodded, sitting up and kissing Jungle Boy’s cheek. “Drinks.”

**Author's Note:**

> Some translation notes:  
1\. Marko's name sign is the ASL for "mark," in the wrestling sense, of someone who is gullible and easy to take advantage of.  
2\. Luchasaurus's name sign is an outdated sign of the word "dinosaur."


End file.
